WaPo’s fact-checker notes that President Trump’s line in his SOTU about record-low unemployment ‘did not age well’

During President Trump’s Feb. 4 State of the Union address — the one Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up after it was over — the president obviously hyped his administration’s excellent unemployment numbers. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler notes, however, that Trump was only three years into his first term — just wait until you see the average unemployment numbers after he completes his fourth year in office.

Line from Trump's State of the Union address that did not age well: "“Incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than any administration in the history of our country.”

As we noted in our fact check at the time: "This is worth fact-checking because the average over three years is hardly comparable to a four- or eight-year average for other presidents." Imagine what the average will end up by the conclusion of Trump's term.

This is an example of how manipulated stats can backfire on politicians. You shouldn't be comparing yourself to full-term presidents before your term is up. Things can happen that make such claims appear foolish in retrospect.

Glenn, this is embarrassingly silly. The statement was accurate at the time. No, it did not account for an unprecedented pandemic. Seems fact checkers should focus on things that are actually false, not facts that bother them.

Better give Trump like 35 Pinocchios for not being able to see the future at the very beginning of February when China was lying to the world about how contagious and deadly the coronavirus is. https://t.co/z6t42HhWlp

Hello to the gleeful Washington Post, it took the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the economy to derail the amazing economy that we have had with Trump as our president but sure go ahead and talk about our current unemployment rate

You're literally trying to dunk on trump by displaying that his worst numbers, brought about by a near total economic shut down, are as crappy as Obama's numbers without a a near total economic shut down. That's not the winning argument you think it is.

Incredible that it took a global pandemic and most every state ordering the shutdown of their economies to take us from the best economy in 50 years back to the best Obama could do. I'm going to pull the lever so hard for Trump in November, your mother is going to feel it.